What is NGP VAN?

The Vox story I linked to in the previous story describes it a bit.

Here's more on it. It's how campaigns get access to voters and build up models predicting what they are likely to do (vote, contribute, etc...) and who they are likely to support. It's build up from lists of registered and actual voters in each county across the country. Then each candidate's campaign adds its own special sauce.

Click here for the company's website.

And for more:

- Wikipedia: NGP VAN.
- Facebook: NGP VAN.
- What is NGP VAN, the Tech Firm at Center of Democratic Primary Dispute?

Here's a description from the last story: 

So what exactly is NGP VAN? 

The D.C.-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) company specializes in providing campaign software to progressive campaign organizations. In addition to fundraising, social media and compliance tools, the company provides access to vast amounts of voter data across the United States. As the sole distributor of the DNC's voter file, the company's database is a powerful and valuable tool for Democratic campaigns. With the voter file, a campaign can access a registered voter's past voting history, their address and contact information.

As a campaign contacts voters, they will carefully record responses in their own NGP VAN account. Knowing whether a voter is likely to vote and supports your candidate will make your operation run more smoothly and efficiently on election day. And having all of that data carefully compiled in an online database can make or break a voter turnout operation.

Over the course of a campaign, volunteers and staff will personally talk to voters and ask whether or not they are supporting a candidate. Voter preferences are assessed on a 1-5 scale, a 1 being extremely likely to vote for your candidate on election day, and a 5 meaning they are voting for someone else. These responses are recorded by campaigns in the NGP VAN database. In the weeks leading up to, and on election day, a campaign will reconnect with all of their "ones" to make sure they are going to vote, know where their polling place is etc.

NGP VAN has many tools in which a campaign can sort, view and track data. For instance, a campaign can narrow down a list of every "two," or likely voter for their candidate, in Manchester, N.H., print a list with their phone numbers or addresses, and have volunteers call those people or knock on their door to try to convince them to become "ones." This data is extremely valuable to the campaign, and is the heart of their field operation.